Mister Johnson

A British colony in West Africa creates a monster in the local black man who succumbs to the western greed and uses it to better his life so as to live like the rich whites do. A convincing performance by Maynard and a surprising one from Brosnan. Wonderfully shot and gently directed by Master Beresford.

Mister Johnson tells the tale of a young Nigerian man whose dishonesty and desire to please others lead to his downfall. He's lost--thinking he must be British to be a real man, for that is what he hears the British imperialists say. He doesn't understand the intrinsic worth of his African identity, and in his attempt to become more and more British, he loses everything he loves. The plot itself is sad but not entirely original. The movie's charm is in its setting--central Nigeria--and its use of the Pidgin and Hausa from that region. As one who grew up there, I was thrilled with their correct usage of terms and expressions. The cinematography is excellent, and I appreciate the genuineness of the movie itself. Sad but worth watching.

This is a wonderful film that captures the flavor of working in the African bush more accurately than any film I've seen. The gentle cultural clash between Mr. Johnson and the road builder (Pierce Brosnan) is exactly as I've experienced it with so many workers. And Mr. Johnson's downfall caused by his inner conflict (being pulled from his traditional roots down into the beguiling but unaffordable Western abyss) could have been the autobiography of too many African funtionaires I've known.

Every so often you come acrooss a movie that at first you have no intention of watching and at a glance it seems as though it couldn't possibly interest you but it just pulls you in, takes you to another time and your hooked, Mister Johnson is one such film. The story takes place in West Africa 1920 while the british empire is still in partial control of the land and it's survival of the fittest so to speak. Native men work all day virtually as slaves for pennies and a select few that were lucky enough to be educated and get a good start in life treat the rest worse than the white colonists in an attempt to gain favor with the British. Mister Johnson is a movie about a fluke of a man, educated, sly, cunningly crafty, sharp as a tack and a black man living in a hard time and place. Mister Johnson is a movie about a man who tries so hard to be British he forgets who his people really are, he breaks his back time and time again bending over backwards for the British but ultimately gets no real reward except his satisfaction in believing he's one step closer to being and englishman. This movie looks so real and the characters are so vivid and realistic you sometimes ahve to close your eyes for a second or so to remember your not there with them. In my view Mister Johnson is someone we can ALL relate to, a man obsessed with being a bigshot in a town of nobody's and he will do anything to achieve it.

The title character in Bruce Bereford's film is a native clerk in British West Africa (circa 1923), who becomes alienated from his own people after ingratiating himself with his English masters. He likes to say he's a true English gentleman in his heart, but the color of his skin tells a different story, and for all his delusions of civilized grandeur he can't see that a civil servant is, by any other name, still a servant. There's much to admire here: clearly a lot of care and attention went into the film. But although it captures superbly the heat and light of the African veldt, the story is surprisingly dark, despite Bereford's best efforts to minimize the discomfort of his audience. The servant Johnson is made to seem entirely innocent of any wrongdoing (even after being totally corrupted by colonial British culture), and his white overlords are, likewise, not portrayed with any ambivalence. Up to a point, at any rate: Pierce Brosnan's final, chilling act of grace isn't likely to send moviegoers home in an upbeat frame of mind.